FINE,
EMPIRE BRASS
26
may/june 2010
a
Upst n
It’s not
a huge
uprising,
but a
number of
ensembles—
even string
quartets—
no longer
sit in chairs
when
performing.
What’s it
all about?
nding
L
ike most art forms, chamber music
performance has evolved to reflect
changes in society and technology.
As instruments developed greater power to
project, performances moved from small
chambers to larger spaces, where professional
musicians played to paying audiences. New
instrumentations, such as the saxophone
quartet and the percussion ensemble,
emerged. By the late twentieth century,
composers had recast what was once thought
of as “intimate musical conversation” to incorporate abrasive electronically-produced
sonorities. Some works called for musicians to wear headphones with click tracks,
preventing them from hearing each other.
Sometimes they couldn’t even hear themselves.
The latest trend in chamber music performance, by contrast, is distinctly low-tech
but nonetheless high impact: playing standing up.
Well, it isn’t exactly new. Some established
brass quintets—notably the Empire Brass—
have stood for decades, as have early music
groups, woodwind groups and, more recently,
chamber orchestras. But string quartets,
breaking centuries-old tradition, have recently
joined their ranks. As such, the time seems
ripe to consider the pros and cons of the—
well, position.
ENSEMBLES
PROS
For many people, it’s simply more comfortable to play standing up. It’s how we’re
taught to play and how we perform as soloists. Standing, it’s easier to establish good
posture with the instrument.
Standing also allows freedom to express
with the whole body. With arms, shoulders
and waist liberated, a player’s range of motion
expands. For wind players, there’s better
air flow. The ability to turn the whole body
makes it easier to communicate with other
ensemble members and the audience. One
arguably feels the rhythm of a piece better
on one’s feet, and, perhaps unconsciously,
produces a bigger, fatter sound. In terms of acoustics, sound travels farther
and with greater clarity when musicians
stand. Why? Sound vibrations aren’t absorbed
by the musician’s lap, clothing, and chair.
Standing, players are visually more stimulating. A player who looks fully engaged
tends to elicit more engagement from an
audience. The players want to bring the
composer’s intentions to life, in a
way, making a case for the
piece. No speaker delivers
a speech sitting down.
Can you imagine a
courtroom lawyer trying
to convince a jury from
a seated position? by Judith Kogan
EMERSON STRING QUARTET
27
Some leading chamber ensembles have
switched to standing almost by accident.
(See “What Made Them Stand?” opposite
page.) The Emerson String Quartet, which
sat for more than twenty-five years, has
stood for most of the last decade. The New
York Woodwind Quintet, seated for most
of six decades, has stood for virtually every
performance since 2005, when one member
stood in rehearsal to boost his energy. The
avante-garde ensemble eighth blackbird first
stood in a response to an Oberlin professor’s
offhand suggestion about something else.
Having tried and liked it, none of these
groups has looked back. EVEN BEFORE EMERSON
The New Zealand String Quartet, which
preceded the Emerson Quartet to its feet,
also arrived there accidentally. In 1995, the
New Zealand ensemble was coaching a
student group that was having trouble
expressing the swing of a piece. One by
one, the quartet members leapt onstage to
try to get the students to move with the
music. When one of the violinists pulled
his student to his feet, the other violinist
and violist did the same with their counterparts. Suddenly, the music came to life.
The students played with freedom; the
sound opened up. This led the coaches to
reflect on their own conventional seating:
At a private concert soon afterward, they
tried performing standing and haven’t sat
down since. BIAVA QUARTET
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may/june 2010
QNG—QUARTET NEW GENERATION
CONS
For some instrumentalists, of course, standing is physically impossible. Cellists, pianists
and harpists need to sit. Standing in an
ensemble that includes these instruments
inevitably places the musicians at different
planes relative to one another and to the
floor. String quartets have solved the problem, as the New Zealand Quartet did, by
placing the cellist on a podium that raises
him closer to eye level with the violinists
and violist. The cello podium becomes part
of the quartet’s “travel kit” or is provided by
presenters. The bulky original version used
by the New Zealand Quartet had immov-
able bedlegs. The current one—portable,
but still cumbersome—has foldable legs. Pianists are not easily placed on podiums.
And pianists, generally sitting behind the
other instrumentalists and often (erroneously) thought of as accompanists, are further
diminished by being the only player seated.
Like the Emerson Quartet, most chamber
ensembles that otherwise stand, sit when
performing with piano. Though some find standing up boosts
their energy, stamina can be an issue—
though generally not during a concert,
while adrenaline flows. Some of the groups
that stand to perform, sit to rehearse and
record. And although certain back problems
disappear when standing, others become
more acute. Footwear needs to be considered.
As Mary Persin, the Biava Quartet violist
jokes, “Our heels are shrinking every year.”
Stephen Pollock, of the New Century
Saxophone Quartet says, “Concert over, I
notice my feet may be sore. Back at the hotel,
I want to get the shoes off pretty fast.” Some instrumentalists rely on laps to
anchor their instruments. Though violinists
and violists might be pleased to lose the lap
that can be an obstacle when playing on the
E or A strings, horn players who stand need
to learn a new way to keep an embouchure
stable. Bassoonists, saxophonists and some
clarinetists who stand learn to use straps.
BOREALIS WIND QUINTET
The tuba player in the Empire Brass
stands for short performances, but for a
standard-length concert, sits on a straightback chair, bell facing out. Even strapped
to the body, the tuba is nearly impossible
to hold for two hours.
Some think that standing is gimmicky,
the added entertainment value upstaging the
music. But standing doesn’t necessarily imply
wild movement. The Escher String Quartet
stands in tight formation but moves little
more, one journalist noted, than four
unrelated people on an elevator. Their
communication with one another is subtle,
yielding a tightly woven blanket of sound.
Some feel the appropriateness of standing
depends on the repertoire. But in the season when the Emerson Quartet was pleased
to play Haydn Quartets standing, violinist
Eugene Drucker worried about standing
to perform Beethoven’s Razumovsky
Quartets—“the quintessential quartet experience—intimate, with huge sonorities.”
He has decided it’s just as valid.
What
Made
Them
Stand?
THE EMERSON STRING QUARTET The confluence of three musical
events around its 25th anniversary season (2001–2002) led the
Emerson String Quartet to stand for virtually all its performances
since. 1. The quartet performed Shostakovich’s 15th String Quartet as
part of The Noise of Time, a theater piece with four actors, film,
choreography, taped readings and live music. The players stood
for much of the work, at times separated by as much as thirty feet.
The experience loosened up their notions of how a string quartet
should be played.
2. Concerned that a scheduled concert in Alice Tully Hall of six
Haydn string quartets would lack impact, the quartet was looking
for new ideas. Cellist David Finckel suggested that since the first
violin parts were soloistic, the first violin might consider standing.
But since string quartets today are essentially democratic, both
violinists and the violist stood; Finckel sat on a cello podium.
Pianist Wu Han, listening from the hall, noted a marked improvement
in projection. 3. In honor of the anniversary season, the Cleveland Orchestra
commissioned Wolfgang Rihm to compose Dithyrambe, a concerto
for string quartet and orchestra, to be performed in Cleveland,
Boston, and Carnegie Hall. Concerned about projecting over the
thick orchestral writing and since concerto soloists generally stand—
and the season had served up other “standing” successes—the
quartet performed the concerto standing up.
THE NEW YORK WOODWIND QUINTET The NYWQ, seated for
almost six decades, started standing in 2005 and has stood for
virtually every performance since. As member bassoonist Marc
Goldberg tells it, “We are all extremely busy outside of the quintet,
so the rehearsals start late and run long. At one rehearsal when
our intensity was flagging, the oboist, Steve [Taylor] stood to help
regain energy. We all followed suit. It was so remarkably better, we
decided then and there to make it our performance practice.” eighth blackbird When the ensemble first got together at Oberlin
in 1996, a professor suggested, half-jokingly, “Why don’t you
memorize this piece to take it to the next level?” Once the piece
was memorized, says clarinetist Timothy Munro, “it seemed silly to
be sitting in formation, stubbornly staring at non-existent music
stands. So the decision was made to stand and engage visually
with one another and the audience, and we haven’t looked back!”
Eighth blackbird has actually gone a step further: they sometimes
walk while they perform.
CALEFAX REED QUINTET
ADVOCATES AND OTHERS
Violinist Daniel Heifetz, on a campaign to
redefine the concert experience—“to bring
the excitement back,” he says—has made
standing for performance a cornerstone of
the program at New Hampshire’s Heifetz
International Music Institute. Students
29
are required to take a communication
training course—classes in public speaking,
movement and drama. At the Heifetz institute, even ensembles with piano stand.
Even orchestras, Heifetz feels, should play
standing.
Among orchestras that do is the Australian Chamber Orchestra, which, according to eighth blackbird’s clarinetist Timothy
Munro, breathes, moves and plays like a
world-class string quartet. “They are an inspiration in so many ways, but particularly in
the way they engage an audience—from their
designer outfits to the youthful exuberance
of their thrilling interpretations to their
dynamic profile onstage.” He notes that
their concerts are among the few classical
events where gray hair doesn’t predominate
in the audience.
“Once the Emersons started the practice,
I suspect that most other quartets at least
thought about it, especially younger ones,”
says Phillip Ying, the violist of the Ying
Quartet, which decided to remain seated.
The Ying Quartet doesn’t feel that remaining
seated diminishes its ability to communicate
or be physically uninhibited, “so we stay that
way, and things don’t get complicated for
our cellist.” The Borromeo Quartet understands the advantages to standing, but hasn’t
Continued on pg 54
BROOKLYN RIDER
some
ENSEMBLES
THAT
STAND
STRING QUARTETS
Emerson String Quartet
Escher String Quarter
Biava Quartet
Artemis String Quartet
New Zealand String Quartet
Carpe Diem String Quartet
Brooklyn Rider
ETHEL
30
may/june 2010
WINDS AND BRASS
New York Woodwind Quintet
Borealis Wind Quintet
Calefax Reed Quintet
Vento Chiaro
New Century Saxophone Quartet
Amstel Quartet
Red Line Saxophone Quartet
Capitol Quartet
Empire Brass
QNG—Quartet New Generation
CHAMBER ORCHESTRAS
Sejong Soloists
Australian Chamber Orchestra
A Far Cry
Venice Baroque Orchestra
I Musici de Montreal
MIXED ENSEMBLES
eighth blackbird
Fine, Upstanding Ensembles
continued from page 30
felt a desire to try it. “When the group is
seated in a semicircle,” says first violinist
Nicholas Kitchen, “there’s a certain plane of
listening. There’s an instinctive reluctance
to give that up.”
IMANI WINDS
ON BALANCE
Ideally, chamber musicians want to bring
the audience into the intimate world of
blended voices. But they also need to be
practical. A string quartet might look and
sound puny in the Hollywood Bowl. And
younger and less sophisticated audiences,
with music at their fingertips 24/7, are used
to more buzz in a live concert. Whereas older
groups might think more about bringing
an audience into their world, some younger
groups, raised in a media-saturated world,
focus more on the total package they’re
delivering. ETHEL, a “post-classical” string quartet
that refers to itself as a band, is among them.
“Honestly, we feel that we play better when
we stand,” says Cornelius Dufallo, its first
violinist. “A large part of ETHEL’s mission
is breaking with old conventions that we feel
inhibit communication between performer
and audience. Sitting while you play is one
of them. Today’s jazz musicians often
stand. Rock musicians almost always stand.
Why must chamber musicians sit? It’s just
an old tradition that performers sometimes
forget to question.” “When we coach chamber music groups,”
says eighth blackbird’s Timothy Munro,
“we find that not only do they sit, but they
also take the business-meeting formation:
all facing each other with no seeming interest
in the audience. Chamber groups must
think about how they can engage an audience.
This shouldn’t just be a decision about
whether to stand. More things have to be
taken into account,” he says, including
programming, concert dress, speaking from
the stage, and interaction outside of the
performance.
Without question, a stirring chamber
music performance could be delivered either
standing or sitting. Ditto, a ghastly one.
A FAR CRY
Whether to stand is only one of numerous
factors that inform a performance. It’s also
true that performers need to feel comfortable,
but a routine may be stale. It can be useful
to shake things up. Try a new configuration.
Try playing from memory. Try playing in
pitch dark. Each forces a new kind of listening and engagement. As Yuli Turovsky,
the conductor of I Solisti de Montreal, a
chamber orchestra that plays standing, says,
“Think: Glenn Gould. The way he sat at
the piano was ridiculous. He broke all the
rules. But the way he presented music was
incomparable.”
Try standing.
Judith Kogan is author of Nothing But the
Best: The Struggle for Perfection at the
Juilliard School (Random House) and a contributor to Strad and Strings magazines. A
professional harpist, she and soprano Maria
Jette have recorded settings of folk songs from
the British Isles by Benjamin Britten and
Melodies by Gabriel Fauré (Centaur Records).
ETHEL
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may/june 2010